Wireless networks are becoming very popular due to the lack of hard wiring that is necessary to connect computers together. In home and office applications, wired networks typically require extensive wiring within walls, above ceilings, and in other locations not easily accessible. Thus, the labor required to install a wired network in a home or office is typically complex, time-consuming, and very expensive. The use of a wireless network eliminates the need for such labor.
In a wireless network, computers communicate with each other with the use of radio frequency (RF) signals propagating by way of a free space medium. More specifically, each computer in a wireless network includes an antenna and a transceiver to transmit and receive RF signals to and from other computers. Typically, however, the antennas used by computers of wireless networks are generally directional. That is, a directional antenna can transmit and receive signals more efficiently to and from a particular free space region than other different free space regions.
It is desirable that the transmit and receive efficiencies of signals transmitted between computers in a wireless network be optimal. This is because there are other extraneous signals propagating within the signal environment of the wireless network. These extraneous signals may interfere with the desired signals of the wireless network, which may adversely affect the data communication of the wireless network. Moreover, higher power transmission requirements may be necessary to overcome transmit and receive inefficiencies in a wireless network, leading to more expensive and complicated hardware to meet such higher power transmission requirements.
Since the antennas used in a wireless network are typically directional, it may not be possible to position the respective antennas of each computer in a wireless network such that each antenna lies within the respective optimal transmit and receive zones of every other antenna in the wireless network.